Man Behind the Mask
by NekoSuave
Summary: "One by one, they'll fall like dominoes...until there's nothing left." Rated M for death, gore, violence, language and slash.
1. The First Victim

**...I'm going to be honest. This idea somehow got implanted into my head and wouldn't leave me alone, so I finally gave in and posted this. A few warnings, first. This is a high school fic, so most of the ages of the people in it will be altered. Second, there's plenty of death and some slash in this, so if you don't like either of them, this may not be the story for you. Now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoy! If you don't like it, you can hit me with a rotten fish. And P.S., I'm sorry for the title. It was really all I could come up with. Really, I racked my brain for about a month trying to figure out a title, but nothing except this came into mind. *head-desk***

**...  
**

"Stupid little brat," she complained. "He wasn't worth my time!"

Barbara Blank, otherwise known as Kelly(and she preferred to be called that name), was on her way to work at the mall. Recently, she had dated a freshman named Evan, but after finding out that he hung out with the school's weirdos, she broke up with him days later. Needless to say, the rest of the students besides the popular kids didn't take too kindly to her actions, but she could care less. To her, Evan was just another tool that could never satisfy her and her needs, and wouldn't get anywhere in life.

However, one of his friends—another man she considered a tool named Adam—had insisted that she apologized to him, because he was considerably heart-broken after what she had done. And so, after a long, lengthy call, she did just that. Although, she never meant it, especially since it made her ten minutes late for work.

It was nearly five PM when she arrived at the mall and began her work as a cashier at a Hollister store. After getting yelled at by the manager of the place, she stood behind the counter. Like every other day, business was slow, so for nearly three hours straight, she was either staring at the store, playing with the bell by the cash register, texting someone on her phone, or looking at the clothes in the store. She sighed as she started to consider clocking out early, but knowing how angry the manager was at her, that might get her fired. His policy was to at least be at work five to eight hours a day.

"Wasn't my fault," she grumbled in protest. "No, Adam just _had _to make me late by forcing me to say sorry to that brat, or else he and his stupid friends would come and TP my house!" She continued to curse under her breath and started to pace back and forth until she heard something fall to the ground. She jumped a bit and looked down, only to see that her phone had fallen out of her pocket.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." She reached down and looked at her phone for about two minutes to see if it got dented. She cared about the thing like it was her baby, and the last thing she wanted was for it to break. She let out a low whine when she saw that it had a scratch on it, but before she could even think about what to do about it, she jumped to her feet at the sound of the bell.

"What do you-" she had started to say as she got up, but stopped herself when she got a good look at the man in front of her.

His appearance threw her for a loop. He was wearing a tattered , black hoodie with the hood covering his face, and despite how well-lit the store was, she couldn't see his face. Upon closer inspection, she realized that, for some reason, he was wearing a veil to hide his face. She looked down and saw the baggy pants and tennis shoes he was wearing.

She tried very hard to suppress a laugh. He looked very ridiculous to her. _"Must be another weirdo," _she thought before clearing her throat. "Hey, it's the middle of September, Halloween's not for another month!"

He didn't say anything, which threw her for a loop again. Normally, anyone who was insulted for what they were wearing would start a huge fight and every once in a while, all hell would break loose. But this man looked like he had completely ignored her. She never noticed him pull a neatly folded piece of paper out of one of the front pockets. In fact, she was so out of it that he had to ring the bell again just to get her attention.

"Is...is that for me?" she asked.

His response was only to nod, grab her hand, and place the paper in it.

She blinked before quickly turning away from the man and unfolding the paper, only to find a hastily scribbled message written on it.

_To anyone who receives this message:_

_Soon, I shall leave this world due to an unfortunate sequence of events. It is because of this that I want to do one last good thing for someone before I go. That is why I sent a messenger to deliver this note to any stranger he deems worthy. The stranger will receive a hefty sum of one thousand dollars in cash. And you, my friend, are that lucky stranger. All you have to do is arrive to the disclosed address before midnight, and the money is yours. The address is 694 Valley Avenue. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it._

_P.S.-If you can't find a way in, there should be a fake rock by the entrance. There will be a key to the front door inside of it. And please, make sure no one sees you. I have made plenty of enemies in the past, and if they see you trying to get into the house, they might suspect that you're here at my request. Also, please come alone. You and you alone deserves this money._

She couldn't believe it. Somehow, she was lucky enough to be rewarded one thousand dollars for doing absolutely nothing! She squealed in glee and turned around to thank the man, only there was one slight problem.

He was nowhere to be seen.

_-11:30 PM-_

By the time ten o'clock rolled around, she was desperate to get out of the store so she could start her path to fancy living. When she finally did clock out, she stopped by her house, left a note for her parents saying that she'd be home late, and then started her search for the house. However, she had never heard of a place called 694 Valley Avenue; hell, she never even heard of Valley Avenue itself! So, for an hour and a half, she was frantically searching for the street and the house that held her destiny. Finally, she found the street, which looked like it was abandoned(which made her freak out, but she continued driving, and eventually, the house. She ran out of her car to see it, but it was far from what she had expected it to be. She expected the house to look extravagant, like a mansion or something. In reality, the house was far from being fancy. Its windows were boarded up, the paint on it was faded, the lawn was overgrown, and, overall, it looked a lot like it was abandoned for a few years.

"What the hell?" she grumbled before a thought hit her. Maybe the person giving her the money wanted her to meet here to look less suspicious. After all, he or she said that they had enemies to look out for. She started looking for a way inside, only to realize that every single window was boarded shut, and the front and back doors were locked. Just when she was about to give up hope, however, she saw a rock on the porch. This is when she remembered what the note said and picked up the rock. She turned it over and saw a key to the door and grinned. Making sure that no one saw her, she carefully unlocked the door and went inside.

When she saw the living room, she was convinced that the outside looked and smelled ten times better than the inside. Cobwebs were strewn all over the place, whatever was left of the furniture was either torn apart, had mold all over it, or both, and whoever lived here last really wanted to go out with a bang;several faded, darkly colored splotches were all over the walls. To top it off, the entire place reeked with an unfamiliar stench, which was starting to make Kelly sick to her stomach.

"What kind of joke is this?" she complained. "Did that man give me a fake note just to mess with me?"

Feeling like she might be wrong, she started searching the house. There was nothing but more cobwebs, mold, and darkly colored splotches upstairs, and the kitchen was completely empty. She couldn't believe this. Someone had played her like a fool, and she fell for it. She growled angrily and started to head for the door, but before she could even touch the handle, she let out a yell as something had hit her in the back of the head. As she fell to the ground and drifted from consciousness, she saw the silhouette of a figure wielding what looked like a metal pipe.

– –

"Wake up, whore..."

She slowly came to once she heard the masculine voice, groaning in pain once the headache hit her. She tried to move, but she found that impossible to do, as it felt like something was holding her down. She could barely see anything at the moment, but she could smell a faint stench in the room.

"Where...where am I?" she muttered weakly as she tried moving again.

"Don't bother. You're strapped to my little toy."

"Toy?" she asked. She did not like the way the voice said it. It sounded so cold...so masochistic. "What toy?"

She heard a chuckle. "Why, it's this table you're on right now."

Kelly turned her head to the side and realized that it really was a table she was strapped to—a very uncomfortable wooden one, she noted. She tried to look around to get a better idea of where she was, but since she couldn't get up, there wasn't much she could see besides the ceiling. She could tell that there might've been more "toys" in the room, but there was something that caught her attention. It was a wall covered with macabre, terrifying masks.

And one was missing.

She never heard a figure step out of the shadows and approach her. "So, I see you're admiring my wall."

She quickly turned around, only to find out where the other mask had disappeared to. This person was wearing it.

The mask itself looked horrifying to her;a sickly shade of green was its color, and the mouth of it was open, but there were four stitches on it, looking like they were trying to shut its mouth for good. The right eye hole looked human enough, except it looked like it was crying blood, while the left one looked far from human;it looked more like a demon's eye, its sclera being yellow with a needle-like iris. She also noticed that there was a veil attached to the mask that was covering the back of the figure's head, and that the right eye hole showed his real eye, while the left one looked fake. However, that still didn't help her;the mask made her think that this man was a monster from hell.

"Don't worry," the stranger said darkly as he pointed to the left side of the mask, "the eye is fake. I'm not a deformed monster. I'm as human as they come...which reminds me, you probably want to know why you're here."

When she finally looked away from the mask, she got a good look at his outfit;a tattered, black hoodie, gloves, baggy pants, and tennis shoes.

"You...you're the man who gave me the note!" she screamed. "Why did you bring me here? Where am I?"

He merely ignored her please as he walked over to a rack on the wall. "The answers to those questions will soon be irrelevant...but since you're so interested, I guess I'll tell you why you're here. You see, the invitation was a test to see if you would come for the money or not. Any person with sense would only come if they were desperate or if they were easily fooled. You, on the other hand, came for the money out of greed. It was like you needed it to survive. Then, there were the incidents where you showed how cold-hearted you could be. You were willing to step on others just to get your way in life."

"How do you know?" Kelly yelled. Although a good portion of what he said was true. She did step on others just to move ahead in life, but she can't afford to waste time being nice to people, and she did come only for the money. She barely cared for the "person" who was dying.

Of course, now she knew that the person was never real;only this psychotic man who had led her in this house, and she fell for it.

He cruelly glared at her through the open eye hole. "You proved this flaw by breaking up with people for the most stupid of reasons at school. They didn't look good enough for you, they didn't have the money, they..hung out with friends you considered to be freaks. You also proved it when you openly humiliated people by telling gossipy whores any secret they told you. You just can't be trusted, can you? Because no matter how much someone cares for you, you'll just stab them in the back in the end."

It didn't take long for her to figure out what he was saying. "Who...who are you?"

"I am someone who is intent on making everyone's lives easier to deal with...by clearing out the scum." He took the object off of the rack and glared at her. "Starting with you."

She was about to object when she felt something harshly smack her stomach and screamed in pain as the object smacked her over and over again. He was using a whip on her, and because of the mask, she couldn't see the psychotic grin forming on his face.

Crack after crack after crack, agonized screams soon turned into hoarse-sounding pleas. She couldn't even say a word anymore because she had screamed so loud. Finally, he stopped whipping her. Blood was slowly coming down the gashes on her body and she was staring blankly at the man as he returned to the rack. He appeared to have put the whip back, but he took something else out of it and approached her with the new object in his hands.

"I think that's enough of that," he muttered.

She was about to let out a sigh of relief when she saw him raise a butcher knife into the air.

"I've let you live long enough...now it's time to get rid of you."

She didn't have enough time to make a sound when the knife was plunged into her neck, making blood go everywhere. Her life was over the instant the weapon broke through her jugular vein. The man stabbed her neck over and over, not caring for the blood that was starting to soak his hands, until he finally dropped the knife and gave the body another glare.

"Such a beautiful work of art," he whispered as he walked over to the wall with the masks. "Too bad you weren't so beautiful on the outside or on the inside...so I'll find something for you that perfectly describes who you really were."

He walked over to the drawer in front of the wall of masks and looked around. He opened one of the cabinets, only to find more masks. He scanned each one until he picked up a mask resembling an evil, fat person. "This will suit you perfectly. No inner or outer beauty, just like you." He walked over to her and carefully put the straps around her head. The mask fit her perfectly.

"Fits you like a glove," he said as he went back to the drawer and yanked out a trash bag from a different cabinet. "Now to put you somewhere where you'll be noticed.

_-1:00 AM-_

It had taken him a while to get out of town without being noticed, but he managed to find an open field about five minuets from the town. He ripped open the trash bag with his hands and dumped the body out, then stared blankly at the body formerly known as Kelly.

"I hope people will be able to see what I've done to you," he said as he ghosted his fingers on the mask. "I want people to look at my creations and see what they think of them."

He twitched as he thought he heard someone's footsteps and quickly turned around, but saw that no one was around and looked back at the body. "You're only the first," he whispered darkly. "I'm going to cleanse this town of scum like you. No one deserves to go through the shit you and the others make people go through."

Before he left the body, he pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down a message on it, then attached it to the body. He smirked before running back to the car and drove away, hoping that his work would be seen by others. The words 'she's only the first' repeated through his mind as he drove back into town...


	2. High School Woes

**Second chapter is here! Sadly, this may be where things slow down, as there is no gratuitous bloodshed in this chapter. Rather, it's more of a "Introducing-The-Main-Characters" chapter, or whatever you call it. If you guys wish to guess who the killer is, guess away, but I won't give away who it is until the end. Maybe I should put up a poll in the future? Well, for fun, anyway? Hmm...anyway, enjoy!**

**...  
**

The next day had started like every other Sunday;people went to church or work, hung out, or just stayed at home all day. It was a pretty normal day...

Until around noon, when the police were called in to investigate a disturbance somewhere in the fields outside of town. Normally, if something happened out of town, they would let the authorities in the next town over deal with it, but this time was different. The person who had called in apparently had a problem in the cornfields because crows were swarming around a particular spot, but when he checked to see what was going on, he was horrified and immediately called the police, saying that a "bloodied girl with several cuts on her neck and a fat man mask covering her face" was dead in his fields. He wanted the authorities from the nearest town to look at this, so moments later, the police had arrived, only to be disgusted with what they saw. They took the body out of the man's hands, which he was extremely thankful for, and took it back to the coroner's office. He had identified her as Barbara Blank, and her parents were immediately notified. No one had mentioned the incident for the rest of the day, but on the very next day, however...

_-Monday, 7:45 AM-_

"Oh my God! Did you hear? Kelly was murdered over the weekend!"

Word had spread around the school like a plague. It had started with a news report revealing Kelly's death, and a couple of her friends managed to watch it. From there, it went downhill. It went from the gossipy preps to whoever was at school for the last fifteen minutes(which wasn't that many people).

"I know!" shrieked Tiffany, whose face was soaked with tears. "Why would someone do this to her? She didn't do anything!"

"Yeah, who would do this?" one of the Bella twins asked.

They kept gossiping about the whole ordeal until someone walked by. The boy looked like he was a freshman, but he looked different from most of them, especially with the purple locks in his hair and the emerald green eyes that made them think of a cat. The girls blinked at him before talking again.

"Aww, he's so cute!" Layla mewled with a look on her face.

"Ain't he one of those weird kids?" asked Alicia.

"Maybe, but so what? He's _sooo_ cute!"

– –

The school's "popularity" system normally operated like this:the jocks were at the top of the food chain along with the preps, followed by the semi-popular kids, which included the foreign exchange students and the non-snobby preps, and then the "geeks", the term used by the jocks for the smart kids. Finally, at the bottom of the chain, were the "weirdos" of the school. These kids were usually different from the rest of the students in some way, shape, or form, and they were normally the ones to blame if something happened at the school. And half of the time, it really was their fault, but everyone else just loved to blame them for everything. But their philosophy was to have fun before you die, and that's just how they worked.

He rolled his eyes when he heard the girls go gaga over him. _"Too bad I'm not interested in fakes."_

He walked upstairs and toward his locker when he saw a familiar sight. "Hey, Adam," he said as a grin was plastered on his face.

"Heya, Jeffro," Adam responded, a similar grin forming on his face as well. Once Jeff was close enough, he grabbed his head and started giving him noogies. It was his way of saying, "I missed you," but in a friendly way. When he let go, the grin was still stuck on his face. "So, how are you?"

"I was doing good, until you gave me a noogie," Jeff said as he tried to fix his hair. He stuck his tongue out at Adam, to which he responded by sticking his back at him. Both of them laughed for a bit before Adam started talking again.

"I'm doing okay." He paused for a bit to look around before looking back at Jeff. "Hey, where's your brother? Isn't he with you twenty four-seven?"

"Yeah, but he forgot to set his alarm last night," said Jeff as he was trying to get into his locker. "So he overslept, as usual. I had to call Jay to get a ride."

"Jay drives?"

"He just got it over the weekend, but he's had his license for a while. I thought you of all people knew that!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Adam asked with a curious look on his face.

"You mean you two aren't going out?" Jeff responded.

Adam paused for a moment before breaking into a fit of laughter. "No, man! Where did you hear that?"

"Well, Mor said-"

"John makes up a lot of things sometimes," Adam responded, trying to hold in his laughter. John Morrison wasn't a bad guy, but he liked to make up rumors. Sometimes, they didn't go anywhere, but most of the time, they spiraled out of control. The most infamous rumor he made up was the one about Matt, Adam, and Jeff having a threesome in the locker rooms, but that was far from true. When Matt heard about it, he chased Mor down with a broomstick he found in the janitor's closet. Despite that, he was still one of the semi-popular students that were fun to hang around.

"Oh...right," Jeff said as he scratched his head.

Adam giggled for a bit before patting the smaller boy's head. He loved how air-headed he could be at times. However, his joy ended when the bell rang. "Stupid bell," he complained. "It needs to go die so I don't have to go to class." He looked at Jeff again. "Alright, I'll meet up with you at lunch, okay?"

"Okay," Jeff said as Adam walked away. He slammed his locked door shut after he got the two books he needed, then walked off to his first class of the morning. On his way there, he couldn't help but think about Adam. He felt like he was interested in him, but there was one problem:his brother. He felt a bit worried;how was he going to react to this? He had no idea how Matt felt about him possibly being gay, but he was too afraid to talk to him about. He sighed as he walked into the classroom. Maybe he should just find a girl to date, but considering that most of the girls in the school were snobby preps, that was going to be ridiculously difficult. Yet he couldn't stop thinking about him.

He blamed it on something that happened last month, during his first day in high school as a freshman. He was trying to look for one of the classrooms, but the jocks had decided to torment the freshmen that day. Jeff was their first victim, and when he was trying to look for the art room, he was cornered by the jocks and was beaten up. Adam had showed up during the right time and managed to hold them off, then took Jeff to the nurse's office. He stayed with him, in case the jocks tried to return for revenge. Jeff had wondered why he bothered coming to his rescue, since he too was a senior, and Adam's answer was simple:

"Those guys beat the holy hell out of me before the end of last year. Why not get some payback?"

And he actually managed to get a little taste of it, too. He broke Randy's nose and managed to bang Ted's head against a locker. Ever since then, he was slowly becoming more and more interested in him. Now, at the end of September, it had gotten to the point where he was all he could think about. He sighed again as he sat down. He started to think that he needed to stop thinking about him, or else he was in for a huge let-down.

_-At Lunch-_

"Hey, Adam!"

Adam was snapped out of his thoughts when a pickle hit his forehead. He twitched and glared at the man who was responsible.

"Yes, Jay?" he asked with an annoyed voice. "You know, you broke me out of my thoughts. What did you want?"

"I wanted to ask you a question."

"Well, ask him the question already!" yelled Matt before starting an staring contest with Kofi.

"I'm getting there!" Jay yelled back before looking back at Adam. "Look, did you hear about what happened over the weekend?"

This made Matt, Kofi, Phil, and even Jeff, who was spacing out, look at Jay. "What happened over the weekend, Jay?" Phil asked after taking a drink of his Pepsi.

Now Adam was curious. Normally, Jay wouldn't talk about weekends unless something serious or crazy happened. Most of the time, it was something random, but judging by the look on Jay's face, Adam was sure that this was something serious.

"The guys over at the news said she was found dead yesterday!"

The announcement made Matt and Kofi's jaws drop and Phil spit out his Pepsi, while Jeff stared at Jay in shock. "You mean...she was murdered?" Jeff yelled a few seconds later.

"Yeah, they found marks all over her body. She also had this weird mask on her face and there was some note found with the body. They tried dusting everything for fingerprints, but they didn't find anything yet."

"Oh, God," Matt muttered. "I may not have liked her for what she did to Evan, but that's just wrong."

"Yeah, and why her?" Kofi chimed in. "Isn't that a bit random?"

"Maybe," muttered Adam. They knew by now that while the only people that liked her were the preps, the jocks, and some of the semi-popular kids, no one would wish death upon her.

Adam was taken from his thoughts again by the bell. "Ugh, I don't want to go to physics!" he complained as he got his stuff off of the table. "I'll talk to you guys later." He gave a couple of the others one more look before walking off. He couldn't help but think about the whole thing regarding Kelly. Whoever killed her was either insane, drunk, or had a grudge with her, but he quickly stopped thinking about the third option. If that was true, then that would probably mean that someone who went to their school was the one who killed her, and he didn't want to believe that one of his friends could be a murderer. Wait, why was he thinking that one of his own friends could possibly be a killer? He wasn't that paranoid, was he? He shook his head, knowing that it was just his imagination. It was probably an insane guy who killed her, not someone from this school...

At least, he hoped so.

...

**So many ideas going through Adam's mind, especially since it seems he's starting to become somewhat paranoid. Who knows? Anyway, I can only hope the next chapter isn't as slow as this. A couple more characters will be introduced there as well.**


	3. A Total Tool?

**Thank you, NeroAnne, for reviewing! I just hope I don't end up screwing this story up, especially since it's the first one I've made where there's slashyness involved. Also...if you're a fan of a certain wrestler who says "Woo" a lot, I gravely apologize for his attitude in this chapter.  
**

**...  
**

"Hey, Kofi?" Jeff asked as they headed for their next class. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what's up?" Kofi asked with a happy look on his face. Jeff never understood why he was always so happy.

"Well...I have a crush on someone, but I can't really say anything, because I don't think Mattie would approve."

Kofi tilted his head. Why wouldn't Matt approve of his crush? "Well, who is it? You can tell me, or are you too embarrassed?"

Jeff sighed. Kofi was good with secrets, but he wasn't so sure if he could keep this one. Then again, if Kofi didn't keep his mouth shut, he was sure someone from his group would make him pay. "Promise not to tell?" he asked before both of them walked into the classroom.

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me," Kofi said with a grin.

"It...it's Adam."

Kofi blinked. Well, he should have seen this coming. "So, I'm guessing you're not straight?" he whispered.

"I'm not sure," Jeff pondered. "I keep thinking about him, but I'm not sure if I'm full-blown gay." Tilting his head at him, he asked, "That's not a problem, is it?"

"No, because I know how you feel."

His eyes widened. "You do?"

"Yeah," Kofi muttered as his eyes slightly darkened. "I had a crush on a guy, but then he dated someone else for a bit." Jeff stared as his eyes got darker. "Of course, then she broke his heart by dumping him for no good reason. Now he's afraid to date anyone because he's afraid of being rejected."

Jeff looked down, trying not to stare into Kofi's eyes. He had never seen Kofi this upset before, and it kind of scared him. "Do...do you still like him?"

He felt some relief wash onto him as he heard Kofi's normal voice. "Yeah, I do, but I have no idea if he likes me back." He smiled at Jeff. "But hey, you know what they say:only time will tell. I'm sure you'll be able to tell Adam about your feelings soon enough. Just don't wait too long, or you may be too late."

Jeff smiled back. "Thanks, Kofi."

"No problem."

– –

There weren't that many people in Mr. Calaway's history class;then again, fifth hour was his smallest class. And he loved it. As he once said to the entire class, he loved fifth hour because there's "not enough brats to torture me for an hour." With only twelve students in total, who could really blame him?

"Hey, grandpa," Jeff teased once he saw him lying his head on the desk. He got groaned at as a result. "Sounds like we might have another free day today," he said to Kofi with excitement in his voice.

"Cool," he said as he sat down next to Evan, who looked depressed. "Hey, what's wrong? You're not this upset most of the time," he asked with concern once he saw Evan's condition.

"Kelly...she's dead..." He tried not to cry, but it was no use. He let the tears fall as sobs escaped his throat.

"Don't cry..." He wrapped an arm around him in an attempt to comfort him. "I'm sure she's in a better place now." In reality, he wasn't so sure. He hated her for what she did to Evan, but did she really deserve what happened to her? From what he heard from other people besides Jay, her body was a mess, but he didn't believe them at that point. He thought it was just a sick rumor. Then, lunch came around, and he realized it really did happen.

"But the way she was killed...the reporter said she was whipped and stabbed in the neck! I just can't think about that, Kofi!" He buried his face in the crook of his neck and continued to cry. Kofi had no idea what to say.

"Aw, boo-hoo!"

Evan looked at whoever said that in confusion, while Kofi put on an angry glare. Sure enough, Zack Ryder was there, in all his "toolish" glory, as Adam would put it. Zack was one of the semi-popular kids, but he was also one of the biggest jerks in the school. Most people blamed a girl he dated named Rosa Mendes, who changed an okay kind of guy into a complete jackass with her words and actions. Though there was one thing that not even Rosa could change:his violent temper. He could get pissed off for no reason, something that concerned some of the students at one point, but they eventually blew it off.

"Great, it's the tool," muttered Kofi.

"I'm no tool, Coffee," Zack spat back at him.

"It's _Kofi,_" Kofi spat back at him before going back to comforting Evan, who was trying to hold back tears.

"Whatever, pipsqueak!" he yelled. "Just stop crying like a baby! I'm not happy with Kelly getting killed either, but you don't see me crying, do you?"

"Zack," Jeff started, but was quickly interrupted.

"Shut up, freak!" he yelled at him.

"Why don't you?" Kofi yelled back.

"At least I'm-"

Suddenly, the sound of hands slamming into a desk was heard throughout the room, followed by someone's bellowing voice.

**"ZACK RYDER, IF YOU DON'T SHUT THE HELL UP, I'M GOING TO DEAL WITH YOU MYSELF! I AM IN NO MOOD TO DEAL WITH YOUR CRAP TODAY!"**

Everyone who hadn't gone to hide looked at Mr. Calaway with a mix of fear and shock, especially Zack. No one had heard him yell that loudly before, which meant he really wasn't in the mood today.

"That...was scary," squeaked one student from under a desk.

"I agree," muttered another from the back of the room.

Another thunderous noise caused everyone to look toward the door. This time, the noise was caused by someone who had accidentally opened it a bit too hard.

"Lovely, it's the fatass," grumbled Zack.

"Zack, be quiet," Mr. Calaway grumbled before looking at the student. "What is it now, Paul?"

"Sorry I'm late," he panted as he flashed a pass, "but someone tripped and sprained their ankle, so I took him to the nurse's office."

"It's okay," he muttered as Paul handed him the pass. "Besides, the bell never-" Ironically enough, he was interrupted by the tardy bell. "Okay, forget I said that, just sit down."

Paul did as he asked, and while most of the others blinked at him in shock, Zack glared at him out of anger. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about him always pissed him off. Was it because he was so big, or the fact that he was so nice, it made him sick to his stomach? He had no idea.

"Now, class," Mr. Calaway muttered sleepily, "I'm sure you saw this coming the moment you walked in." Grins started to form on most of the students' faces, while Zack huffed, too pissed at the moment to really care. "I had a very rough night, and I'm in no mood to teach you guys today. So you get the day off. Don't expect to get another one tomorrow, though. Remember..." He quickly scanned the room. "You got homework from the book," he said, followed by a wink before retiring to his desk. Every time there was a day off, he would always say he gave the students an assignment out of the book, in the hopes that the other teachers wouldn't find out about this. Granted, part of this depended on the students:if they opened their mouths, he would personally take care of them. He may have been old, but he sure as hell knew how to frighten someone.

Right after he sat down, the rest of the students had gone ballistic and started cheering, until he groaned.

"_Please, _keep it down."

In response, they kept grinning like idiots—except for Zack, who was trying to talk to another student.

"Unbe-fuckin'-lievable," he complained.

"Dude, will you shut up?" the student asked.

"Curt, you don't get it! Paul is way too much of a nice guy!" He twitched slightly. "Or have you and Vance been getting each other up the ass too many times to even care?"

Curt glared at him. "Dude, no!" he shouted. "Why are you thinking like that?"

"Well, you _have _been hanging around him a lot lately. Remember when you told me you couldn't come by my house because you and Vance were working on a 'project'?" He emphasized the last bit using air quotes.

"We really had a project to work on! You can even ask the science teacher, he'd tell you! Why the hell are you being so paranoid?"

"At least I'm not a-"

"Guys, could you please stop?" Paul asked. "You're starting to piss everyone off." This was backed up by the fact that everyone was glaring at them.

"Oh, screw-"

"We'll be quiet," grumbled Curt. "At least, I will." He stood up and walked away. The last thing he wanted to hear was someone like Zack, a fucking paranoid hypocrite, insulting him and his boyfriend.

About thirty minutes later, a collective sigh of relief had came from the others when the bell rang. Evan tried getting his stuff in his backpack, but one of his books fell out.

"Crap," he muttered as he reached down to grab it, only to find that someone else took it. He looked up and saw the book in Kofi's hands.

"This yours?" he said teasingly as he handed the book back.

"Yeah," Evan responded, smiling a little as a result.

"C'mon, I'll get you to your next class," Kofi offered with an extension of his hand.

Evan's smile got bigger and took it. "Thanks, Kofi."

"No problem," he said as the two walked out of the room. Jeff, figuring out who Kofi's crush was, couldn't help but smile at the display, but he was reminded of his situation with Adam. He hoped and prayed that Matt would be okay with it, though...

– –

He couldn't stop twitching. He was just so pissed off at the moment. He wanted to get out of English class before he snapped on someone.

"...Zack?"

"What?" he yelled. He was lucky that the teacher wasn't around, or he would be screwed. Much like Mr. Calaway, Mr. Levy knew how to intimidate someone, except he was a bit more mellow and didn't do it as much.

"Dude, you've been twitching ever since you came in here," said the brunette.

"You know what? It's none of your business, Johnny!"

"It's Mor," he grumbled. In the class, there were two boys named John(although one of them had it spelled differently), John Morrison and Jon Emminger. In order to tell who was talking to who, they simply stuck to calling John Morrison by the name that the "weirdos" gave him, Mor.

"Whatever." Finally, the bell rang and he hightailed it out of the classroom. He knew he couldn't hold his pent-up rage in much longer, so...

He ran up to his target and pinned him against the lockers. "You fuckin' queer!" he shouted.

"Hey!" Evan yelled back. "Let go of me!"

Zack refused to listen to his pleas. He really needed a punching bag at the moment, and so he started swinging at him, connecting each punch with Evan's gut.

"What the hell?" yelled a couple of voices. The first thing Zack felt were two sets of arms pulling him away from Evan.

"Let me fucking go!" he shouted and looked behind him to see who was holding him back. He saw Matt with a scowl on his face and Curt, who couldn't stop glaring at him. Curt let go, which surprised Matt, but it only lasted for a second before he saw him slap Zack across the face.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he shouted. "Why did you beat up Evan?"

Zack glared at him. "He's a dumbass, that's why! He was whining and crying about Kelly earlier, and now he's apparently dating that Coffee guy! No wonder she dumped his ass!"

The words that came out of his mouth made Curt give him an even harsher glare. "So what are you saying? That you can't stand gay people?"

Before Zack could object, Curt slapped him again. "You fucking hypocrite!" he shouted. "What happened to you? You weren't like this when we were dating! Then we broke up and you started dating one of those whores! That Rosa bitch turned you into some...some..." His eyes were starting to water, and his throat clenched tightly, something that shocked Zack. Then, instead of more words, came something that shocked him again:Curt had lunged at him and started beating the holy hell out of him. It had taken about five minutes just to get him off, and even longer to keep the two separate.

– –

That night, the coroner had looked at Kelly's body. The coroner, known only as Paul Bearer, was surprised at how the body looked. Several wounds on her neck, a couple of lacerations on her abdomen, and dried blood all over her body. It disturbed him, and he had already seen plenty of dead bodies in the past. As of right now, he hadn't found any DNA from the killer yet, but he was sure he would find something soon. But if he didn't, he knew that whoever this was knew what he was doing, and probably took the necessary precautions to make sure he wasn't caught. If that was true, then trying to stop whoever this was would become a massive problem. They would be blind like bats if they didn't find any DNA evidence on her.

He then turned his attention towards the note by the table. It was found attached to her body, and the authorities handed it over to him. He tried to get DNA evidence from it hours ago, but to no avail. He suspected that none of them actually read it, but it wouldn't surprise him if they didn't. They preferred the action side to the law more than the part where they actually have to think. He sighed and carefully grabbed the note, then opened it up and started reading the messy handwriting on it.

_This town is already full of deceit. Don't you people see what I see? You see pretty little faces, whereas I see corruption. Take this girl, for example. She had the pretty looks that would make any ordinary man swoon and fall into her web. But have you considered what was inside? She manipulated others to move ahead. She never cared what happened to anyone, just as long as she got her way. Someone had to stop her from spreading her influence, right? To stop her from destroying someone else's life with her lies? That's where I come in. I did you all a favor and removed this piece of scum from the town! I even gave you a small glance of who she really was...yes, the mask. On the outside, it looks like an evil, fat man, but what does this symbolize? It symbolizes the evil within this 'pretty, little face'. Don't worry, she won't be the last. I intend on cleansing this town by eliminating all of the trash in it. One by one, they'll fall like dominoes...until there's nothing left._

Paul blinked, trying to make sense of what the person had written down. This guy either had a plan, or was a raving lunatic, he thought. There was, however, one question that had popped into his mind...

Who was next?


	4. Burning Hatred

**Confession time...I honestly did not like how chapter 3 went. I don't know, maybe it was the strange nature of it all, maybe it was the way Zack was portrayed, maybe it was the seemingly wacky nature of Mark's class. While I didn't like it, however, I do like how this chapter turned out. Let me warn you guys now. After this chapter, things are going to get darker and gruesome, especially the deaths.**

**...**_  
_

_I know..._

_I know who's next..._

_He deserves to die..._

So many thoughts raced through his head as he looked at the many masks on the wall. If he planned on killing again, he had to be careful not to get caught, to make sure no trace of his existence was left on the body besides the notes. He only wrote them to explain everything, but even then, he doubted that they would listen. They would see him as a killer, not a cleanser. "If only they could see what I can see," he muttered as he picked out a mask. This mask in particular was mostly white, with black, root-like lines traveling all over its right side. Its mouth was partially sewed up, with the right half of it grinning maliciously. His dark eyes scanned it before placing it on the drawer. It represented himself much more than he thought. Just looking at the mask made him detest it so...he just wanted to destroy it, find a way to get it away from his eyes, but he couldn't help but stare at it.

Realizing he had fallen into a daze, he shook his head. Right now, he had to deal with the thoughts in his head. A part of him wanted to just rush to his house and stab him in the heart, but that would compromise his identity and ruin everything. "Only fools rush in," he whispered, "but am I a fool for having such a foolish dream?" He grinned. "No, of course not. They just refuse to see it. And they probably won't allow themselves to see it until it's too late."

Then, from out of nowhere, a mask had fallen from the wall and hit his head. He grumbled as he looked at the mask and a evil shine appeared in his eyes.

Perfect.

–_8:05 PM–_

Jeff was waiting for his brother to come home. Every night, he worked from after school to around 7:30, rarely having overtime. However, it usually took him thirty minutes to get home. He sighed as he heard the door open.

"Hey, Mattie," he meekly whispered.

"Hey, Jeff," he said before looking at him. "Is something wrong?"

"Well...there's something I want to talk to you about."

"Okay," was his response before sitting down. "What is it?"

"I...I have a crush on someone."

"Oh, really?" A grin started to form on Matt's face. "Who's the lucky girl?"

"That's...that's what I wanted to talk to you about," he stuttered out. "It's not a girl I'm crushing on. It's...a guy."

The grin slowly subsided from his face, and Jeff could tell that there was some disappointment in his eyes. "Oh...well...I didn't think you were like that."

"I'm not even sure myself," Jeff muttered. "I just started developing these feelings for him, and now he's all I think about." He knew what was coming now. Matt was going to tell him that it wasn't right to be gay or something like that.

He didn't hear Matt get up from his seat and walk upstairs. When he looked up, he was saddened by his disappearance. Unaware that Matt was watching him from a railing by the stairs, he walked toward the kitchen.

Matt was conflicted. He was a bit worried that Jeff was more turned on by the same sex before, but he paid it no mind and decided to believe that it was his personal paranoia making him think that way. He didn't have a clue what to do if it turned out his fear was true. On the one hand, he didn't want Jeff to go through what his first love put him through. They were once inseparable, but then, Jeff came to her house to find her being screwed by someone else. She had betrayed him, and they never spoke again. When she moved away, Jeff renounced dating altogether, but now, a year after the incident, this was happening. On the other hand, a part of him hoped that he would be happy this way. But he had no idea what he would do if he wound up betraying him as well.

–_The Next Day–_

Zack was lying on his bed, trying to get some thoughts out of his head. He got suspended for three days due to the fight, and for a good portion of the morning, he was complaining. However, when he thought about what he called Evan yesterday, he felt his heart sting a bit. He started to wonder what exactly happened to make him hate gay people so much. And then it hit him. His time with Rosa Mendes as his girlfriend was what changed him. She was nice and all, and she made him forget what it was like with Curt. How it felt to be with him, how it felt to kiss him, how it felt to...

He shook his head. Curt was right all along, he was a fucking hypocrite. He looked at the clock and sighed. 1:30. He had no idea whether Curt was at home or not, since he didn't start the fight. The worst he could get was an in-school suspension, and even then, all he had to do was stay in a room all day. He had to wait another hour and a half before even thinking about talking to him, but since his phone was shut off due to the bill being overdue, he had to walk all the way over there.

So he waited. He lied on the bed for a full hour and a half before getting up. He thought of the fastest way to get to his house, and at first, he thought there wouldn't be any problems...until he realized that there was one block he had to go through. A block that was part of a street that was infamous around town.

Valley Avenue.

AKA, The Haunted Street.

He shuddered. According to the urban legend about the street, a family of psychos had moved into one of the houses forty years ago. Supposedly, their neighbors started to disappear one by one, until only a few people besides them were left. Those people had banded together and burned their house down while they were asleep. Later, after the fire went out, they checked the house and found secret passages to every other house on the street, except for theirs. When they went to check the basements of the other houses, they found the rotting corpses of the people that once lived there. They buried them, and believed that it was over...but they were wrong. One of the survivors went insane, hearing voices in his head, and killed most of the survivors, only to take his own life in the end. Thus began the rumors of the entire street being haunted by the vengeful spirits of the murderers. Three more rumors had spawned from the original:first, people that tried to live on the street were forced to move away about a few months later due to many near-death experiences. Second, any kid that was dared to go inside one of the houses around Halloween came out looking pale, and supposedly heard voices telling them to 'let them out'. The final, and possibly most disturbing, rumor was that there was a chance that anyone who walked into the home of the killers was never seen again. No body, no proof that they were ever inside, nothing. It was almost like they were spirited away into the underworld.

To Zack, who was a bit superstitious and was worried that the rumors could be true, it meant that he needed to make a run for it once he reached the block. Then, he could apologize to Curt, run back home, and hopefully be in one piece.

He hadn't even gotten to the ten minute mark before he made it to the 600 block of Valley Avenue. He knew what he had to do. He started to run. Any normal person would probably think he was nuts, but he didn't want to be on the receiving end of any of those rumors if they happened to be true.

Just as he nearly made it to the end, however, he felt a numbing pain in his neck. He skidded to a stop to feel it, and felt a dart. He pulled it out, and on closer inspection, he realized that it was a tranquilizer dart. "Wh...wha..." His vision was starting to blur, and he could barely stand anymore. He blacked out before his face hit the concrete.

– –

The smell of blood and gasoline had made him stir from his slumber. "Ugh...what the..." He tried to look around, but his eyesight was still blurry, not to mention it was almost completely dark, with only a dimly lit candle illuminating the room. He looked to his side and saw a gaping hole on the wall. He blinked before looking on the other side of the room. Another hole. Why were there holes in the wall? Unless...

"No...where am I?"

"Ah, you're awake now, aren't you?"

Zack looked around frantically. He barely had any of an idea where the voice was coming from. "Who's there?" he shrieked. He was too afraid to realize that the voice sounded a bit familiar.

He tried to stand, but he was stopped by a metal object hitting his leg with a lot of force. He screamed in agony as it was repeatedly slammed into it. By the time it had hit him a fifth time, he was sure his leg was broken.

"Please, stop!" he pleaded. He was thankful that the man stopped hitting him. He felt some relief, though the pain coming from his leg quickly eliminated that. He noticed the room become a bit brighter, and sure enough, when he looked to his side again, another candle was illuminated. To his horror, he saw that the holes were actually corridors, which meant one thing.

The legend was real. He couldn't believe it. It really did happen.

He looked around again and realized that there was nothing in this room except the candles, a clock on the wall, and him...and someone else. "Who are you?" Zack asked.

He heard a chuckle, then the darkly clothed man turned around, wearing the white mask he had looked at earlier. "I can tell you're not happy to see me," he said in a voice much like a whisper.

Zack stared at him, mainly due to the mask. "Dude...why are you wearing a mask?"

"Same reason you are," he muttered. "You're wearing one to conceal your true face."

"What mask?" he yelled. "I'm not wearing one!"

"Physically, you're not wearing one. But everyone has something to hide. Therefore, they create alter egos. They create alternate personalities to hide who they really are. They create masks." He picked up a box of matches and picked one out. "Now, you're probably wondering why you're here. Well, you're guilty of excessive wrath. You've lashed out at others for no apparent reason, except for the fact that you were angry and needed some sort of punching bag. One that is weak and couldn't do anything to fight back."

Zack wasn't believing it. Was he talking about Evan?

"You're also guilty of being a hypocrite. Tell me, what was your past like? I know at one point, you were attracted to the opposite sex, and now, you choose to cause pain to anyone who feels the same way. What happened to make you change, I wonder?"

"How the hell do you know about that?" he yelled. He was so confused right now...how could he have known about him being gay at one point?

The man chuckled. "Oh, you'd like to know, wouldn't you? I guess I'll give you a hint, since you won't be able to tell anyone."

"We'll see about that!" Zack yelled out.

"Temper, temper," the man said, wagging his finger at him. "Let's just say I have eyes in places you don't expect."

Zack blinked, then his eyes widened in realization. Did this man spy on him? Was someone working for him in order to get information? He even wondered if the man was actually a student at the high school, but he didn't want to think of the possibility that the murderer was someone he could know. "What are you going to do to me?" he asked as a frightened note made his voice change in pitch.

The man chuckled again, then broke into a fit of maniacal laughter for a few seconds before clearing his throat. "I'm going to make you pay for your sins." He lit up the match. "Tell me, have you ever heard of the term 'burning hatred'?"

He whimpered. He knew what was coming. "You mean...that smell..." Tears were starting to fall from his face. The man had poured gasoline all over him while he was out. "Please, I'm begging you. I plan to change!"

The man paused for a few seconds before his eyes turned cold and started to glare at him. "A piece of scum like you doesn't deserve a second chance," he whispered as he dropped the match onto him.

Zack's final pleas were drowned out by the flames that engulfed his body.

– –

The man had quickly ran upstairs. The last thing he wanted was to smell human flesh burning. All the while, he was thinking about what had just transpired. He had actually thought about sparing him, but decided at the last minute to go ahead and kill him. After all, he suspected that he a pretty good idea about who he really was, and if he was able to escape and tell people about him, then the chance of his identity being compromised would gravely increase, and he didn't want that. He sat down by the decaying stand and looked at the notebook on it. Ripping out a piece of paper from it and taking out the pencil trapped in its spiral, he began to write. If he had to write another message regarding the stupidity of the people in the town, he certainly would. Even if they refused to come to their senses.

About twenty minutes later, he finished with the note and placed it on the stand. He decided that now was a good time to check on Zack...or at least, what was left of him. However, as he walked down the stairs, he realized that the body was missing. The smell of flesh was clearly in the air, but there was no body to be found. "What the hell?" he shouted out of panic. If he managed to get away from him...

Frustrated, he quickly ran down one of the corridors. Nothing. He gritted his teeth and ran back into the room, but then looked at the floor. There was a trail of blood leading to the next basement. He ran through the other corridor, and sure enough, he saw the charred body of the boy trying desperately to crawl up the stairs. His eyes widened in shock. How was he still alive?

"You got lucky," he muttered as he approached him, "but I promise you, you're not going to live much longer." He turned him over, only to be shocked by what he was seeing. A good portion of the skin on Zack's face was burnt off, revealing his skull. There was no way he should still be alive, he thought as Zack's lifeless eyes weakly glared at him.

"I...know who...you are..."

The man's eyes widened as something snapped in his mind. His shock quickly turned to anger as he watched Zack mouth out his name. "You...you're lying. You don't know who I am!" he shouted as he violently kicked him in the side. Blinded by his own frustration, he continued to violently beat him, until he finally calmed down. Then, he blinked in shock.

There was no body there.

He quickly ran back to the basement, noticing that the trail of blood had disappeared as well. He stopped once he saw the real charred body against the wall, no longer breathing.

"I'm going insane," he muttered. "I just hallucinated about a dead body talking to me." He started to pant heavily as he took off his mask. It really did represent him after all...

Feeling dizzy, he hit the wall and slid to the floor. Something like this hadn't happened to him before. He never thought that he would experience hallucinations as horrifying as this. He looked at the body, and with a gloved hand, decided to try to see if he was still breathing, but he immediately drew it back once a finger had touched the skin. It was searing with heat, making it impossible to approach. Cursing silently, he decided to walk around for a while until the body managed to cool off long enough for him to dispose of it. Once he returned to the room with the wall of masks, he looked at the one mask sitting on the drawer. After picking it up and examining it closely, he sneered. How fitting that this mask was going to represent him and his hatred.

Finally, about thirty minutes later, the body had cooled off enough for him to touch it. He put the mask on him and, along with the note, shoved it into a garbage bag. His eyes turned to the old clock on the wall. It was nearly past nine. He took the bag and the white mask, and went outside, shoving the bag into the trunk of his car. He may have been a bit insane, but he wasn't insane enough to want the smell of human flesh permeating in his car. Now for the task at hand:what was he going to do with the body?

"I think I know the perfect place," he said darkly as a cold, sadistic grin formed on his face. Putting the mask back on, he drove off towards his next destination.


End file.
